Columbia Design League | Columbia Museum of Art

What is Columbia Design League?

We are a group of Columbia Museum of Art members who share a belief that design matters in every area of modern life. Our annual seasons abound with lectures and discussions led by architects, designers, artists, and other luminaries. The Design League collaborates with academic, civic, and professional organizations to bring appealing and insightful design programs and events to the region.

2018-2019 Season Calendar*

September 6, 2018
Annual Meeting featuring Tactical Urbanism Expert Mike Lydon
Columbia Museum of Art

October 9, 2018
Meet the Designer: The Hendrix Experience with Garvin Design Group
Hendrix, 1649 Main St.

November 7, 2018
The Public Restroom: Fear, Decency and Design
Harvey Molotch, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and Sociology — NYU
Columbia Museum of Art

February 9, 2019
Meet the Designer: BullStreet By Bus
BullStreet District

June 2019
Dinner by Design
Columbia Museum of Art

*dates, speakers and locations subject to change

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$5 for Students

$15 for Avant Garde and Solo

$25 for other membership levels

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The Public Restroom: Fear, Decency, and Design

The Columbia Design League presents Harvey Molotch, a professor of sociology and metropolitan studies at NYU and co-editor of the book Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, has a beef with American public bathrooms — the physical design often makes an important everyday experience exceedingly uncomfortable.

View image for Play With Your City

Play With Your City

The Play With Your City competition invites artists, architects, designers, and big thinkers to take a fresh look at familiar places.

In 2018 the competition focuses on two busy-- and boring-- intersections in the heart of a vibrant capital city. Why don’t pedestrians stick around? How can we bridge the boroughs? What will make us enjoy crossing the street or slowing down to experience it? What could push a shift toward people-first planning?

Past Events

Design Presentation featuring Philip Freelon

Philip G. Freelon, FAIA, is founder of Durham, N.C. architectural firm the Freelon Group. The Freelon Group is the architect of record for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Freelon serves as the design guarantor, ensuring the design reflects the values and priorities of the museum and the Smithsonian Institution.

February 2016

Screening and Discussion featuring Mack McCary & Matthew Miller

"If You Build It" is a documentary about a year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms, where students design and build to transform their hometown community. Designer-activists lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to reinvent not just their town, but their own sense of what's possible.

September 2015

An Evening with Architect and Educator Stephen Chung

Chung is host of the four-part public television series Cool Spaces! The Best New Architecture. In the show, he profiles buildings and spaces across the U.S. that have been created by architects and others who pushed the boundaries of design, materials and process. From napkin sketches to study models, Chung leads design buffs behind the scenes and into the architect’s mind, exploring the design process before the first wall is built.

May 2014

Lecture and Q&A with MTV's Jeffrey Keyton

Special lecture and Q&A session with SVP for On-Air Design and Off-Air Creative, MTV and MTV2, Jeffrey Keyton. Keyton oversees the award-winning design teams at MTV and has been instrumental in defining MTV’s distinctive visual personality for the last 20 years.

March 2011

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio is a documentary film on the late architect Samuel Mockbee and the radical educational design/build program known as the Rural Studio. The film explores Mockbee's effort to provide students with an experience that forever inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities.

February 2011